Eskom has requested the help of the public to bring to book the electricity thieves responsible for the deaths of 29 people and serious injuries suffered by 82 others in Kwazulu-Natal over the past three years as a result of illegal electricity connections and other...

It was doomed to fail but the DA persevered and called for a vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma yesterday.

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It was not surprising that the ruling party, which commands a huge majority in parliament, used its numbers to defeat the motion.

As long as the ANC holds such a majority any motion to remove the president is dead in the water.

If Zuma is to be given his marching orders, there must be buy-in by ANC members and other opposition parties.

As long as the DA goes it alone and fails to convince some within the ANC to prefer integrity to party loyalty, its motions of no confidence in the executive will remain futile exercises.

Zuma can only be removed with the help of the ANC.

The DA will this morning argue that its decision to call for a vote of no confidence in Zuma failed because ANC members voted to protect their jobs.

They will argue that the interests of millions of our people who are unemployed were sacrificed to safeguard one man.

Noble though their arguments might be, the truth is that they have tried and failed before to pass a vote of no confidence in Zuma and yesterday's attempt was just another failure, albeit full of fiery statements.

For parliament to be able to pin Zuma and his executive down, and demand accountability, the opposition parties must increase their representation in parliament through the ballot box.

Once there is a balance of forces in the House, then the executive will have to be more careful to comply with the constitution.

As we battle to keep our economy afloat, debates in parliament should be used to chart a road to recovery.